calbert:titwrench: I got tricked by a movie at Blockbuster called THE Sling Blade. But the "the" in the title was purposely tiny. I threw in in the DVD player and had my WTF moment. I took it back and Blockbuster wouldn't refund my money or allow me to pick a different movie. Their argument was that the movie was only out a couple of months prior and I shouldn't have expected it to be on DVD already. I never went back.

I don't see what they did wrong here? was the movie scratched? did it not play properly? Did the cover box say 'starring Billy Bob Thornton'?

the problem wasn't with Blockbuster or with that movie. it was with you. pay more attention to what's going on around you in this world and you'll avoid embarrassing situations where your ignorance is exposed.

THIS. Some of you are farking retarded if you don't even know enough to read the title of the video you are renting.

So if all that money went purely to salaries, they'd be making less than $30k a year, barely above sandwich artist money. But as we all know, there are many other expenses in making a movie. With that type of budget, how can it not be crap?

Forbidden Doughnut:Sounds like old news to me. Didn't Roger Corman pretty much make a career out of this?

Corman made low-budget movies and pinched pennies til they screamed for mercy but I don't think he ever set out to fool anyone into thinking they were going to see a different movie. That is, I doubt anyone saw Battle Beyond the Stars thinking they were going to see Star Wars. Something like Star Wars maybe, but that's not what we're discussing here.

Those aren't what I was going for. "The Abyss" was the big budget big studio while "Deep Star Six" and "Leviathan" * were small budget ripoffs. The ripoff seems even worse when it's done by 2 big budget studios.

*The "Leviathan" plot was actually closer to ripping off John Carpenter's "The Thing".

rustypouch:Reading about the plight of people too lazy to read amuses me.

FTFA: "made by 30 people in 13 months for less than $400,000"

So if all that money went purely to salaries, they'd be making less than $30k a year, barely above sandwich artist money. But as we all know, there are many other expenses in making a movie. With that type of budget, how can it not be crap?

400,000 / 30 /13 * 12 = $12,307.69 per year.

I guess they're working on more than one movie in a year. Maybe if you help make 6 movies, you can afford rent in LA.

rustypouch:Reading about the plight of people too lazy to read amuses me.

FTFA: "made by 30 people in 13 months for less than $400,000"

So if all that money went purely to salaries, they'd be making less than $30k a year, barely above sandwich artist money. But as we all know, there are many other expenses in making a movie. With that type of budget, how can it not be crap?

Not everyone works on a production for the entire length of the production. For example, the voice actors probably only worked a couple of days for a few grand. Same with the sound crew. After a few weeks, their job was done.

The only people a production like this needs long term are the animators and editors.

Should you understand German:There's a funny little clip on youtube because some students found out that the German-dubbed version of "Flesh Gordon" shares a couple of voices with Disney's "Gummi Bears" cartoon (namely: Duke Igthorn and Princess Calla).So they creatively edited some snippets from a Gummi Bears episode and replaced some of the Gummi Bears dialog with dialog from Fresh Gordon...

Pandora's Litterbox:stoli n coke: Pandora's Litterbox: One Bad Apple: Those aren't what I was going for. "The Abyss" was the big budget big studio while "Deep Star Six" and "Leviathan" * were small budget ripoffs.

Deep Star Six was released in the U.S. on January 13, 1989

Leviathan was released in the U.S. on March 17, 1989

The Abyss was released in the U.S. on August 9, 1989

Just sayin'

It's probably not too difficult to rip off a James Cameron script and get your movie to the box office before he does.

Guy works very slow.

Well I was going to also bring up the fact that the two were both financed and released in-house by major studios (Leviathan through MGM-UA and Deep Star Six through Columbia-Tri-Star).

But I didn't want to be THAT much of a pedant.

The fact that they were major studios also means it's more likely they had read Cameron's script and would try to head off their competitor at the pass. The script had been done for years before Fox greenlit production.

Also, remember, Deep Star Six was made by Sean Cunningham of Friday the 13th fame. A guy who knew how to stretch a dollar and turn a movie out in a hurry.

Nina_Hartley's_Ass:And I don't think those really compare to the Battle LA or Almighty Thor situations.

Yeah, sometimes studios just race to get the same concept out, no one's necessarily ripping off anyone else. Tombstone and Wyatt Earp is another example. And there were two Snow White movies within a 4 month period for some reason.

Mugato:Nina_Hartley's_Ass: And I don't think those really compare to the Battle LA or Almighty Thor situations.

Yeah, sometimes studios just race to get the same concept out, no one's necessarily ripping off anyone else. Tombstone and Wyatt Earp is another example. And there were two Snow White movies within a 4 month period for some reason.

some of the people in this thread are too uptight. So you accidentally rented schlock. enjoy it for what it is. Hell I get excited when I see an asylum flick on netflix... I mean come on. its 8 bucks a month. Its perfect for crappy movies.

stoli n coke:My folks never had a problem with letting us watch violent movies when we were kids, as long as there was no nudity.

I still remember seeing Predator, Robocop, Rambo, and Die Hard before I was 10.

Both of those had nudity.

Funny enough, both had the same skit: A sleazy corporate executive doing coke and farking with a blonde intern in one of the offices.

RoboCop featured more nudity in the cops locker room (Verhoeven likes his unisex bathrooms/locker rooms), some blonde with massive tits in the disco Robo go to gets Leon Nash.

Die Hard also had nudity in the form of a Playboy centerfold featuring a hot blonde McClane comes across while inside the service area of the Nakatomi Building. Who, by the way, is the same girl with white leggings that jumps at the guy at the airport.

ozebb:My wife picked up Abraham Lincoln Versus Zombies from the rental box the other day after we talked about Abraham Lincoln Vampire Slayer and I must say it was wonderfully bad in all the right ways. Of course, we're the sort that appreciate terrible movies so... yeah, we're okay with this.

Whoa, now. WAY too many people here talking about Mac and Me who haven't seen it. This is entirely unacceptable. I implore you to at least familiarize yourselves with two of the most important scenes in the film. Be warned, however - once you see these scenes, you will be compelled to view the rest of the film as quickly as possible (it was on Netflix Streaming two months ago when I watched it. I'd imagine it's probably still available).

Mulchpuppy:Now comes a really special scene. When Paul Rudd appears on talk shows, he occasionally uses this clip instead of whatever it is he's supposed to be promoting. Here's the awesome wheelchair stunt.

ZeroCorpse:Obviously, consumers are getting pissed off over this trend, and studios like The Asylum admit what they're doing... So why does Redbox, Netflix, and other services even stock these items? Why not fix the problem at the retail level?

Honestly, I can't see how having Transmorphers and the cheap knock-off Puss in Boots is good for Netflix, Redbox, or anyone else in the rental business. It just leads to cranky customers who feel cheated, and it takes up valuable space in the box/queue that could be used for other, better movies.

Instead of stocking crap like this, Redbox would get more of my money by stocking decent older films.

Nobody likes The Asylum, or any of the other knock-off companies. Retailers have a choice in what they stock, and so if you see a knock-off in their selection, it's the retailer's fault it's there. Their buyers could cut off those sources. The companies could choose to stop doing business with these charlatans... But they don't.

It's getting to the point where I'm thinking of canceling Netflix because I'm sick of scrolling past dozens of these schlocky flicks just to find anything decent. I don't mind indie flicks, foreign flicks, low-budget flicks, etc... I just can't stand all the obvious knock-offs and cash-ins. They aren't made to entertain; They're made solely to confuse. Quality does not matter to them.

So STOP IT, Redbox and Netflix! STOP IT, Blockbuster and Amazon VOD! STOP IT, VUDU and Crackle! Stop buying from these studios. People will soon get sick of this crap, and you will be the ones to suffer for it.

I completely agree with you, so surely each part of the chain is making enough money to keep doing it.

Just like video games, it's "poisoning the well" as you've said, turning your product toxic and chasing the consumer away. The really funny thing to me is that it keeps happening because everyone involved doesn't see the threat; I can't see the majority of people giving up films, but I can see a heap of them asking "So what's this torrenting thing I keep hearing about".

And some parents buy said knockoffs for their kids as a cheaper alternative to seeing the real thing in the theater or buying the DVD thinking "they won't know the difference." Yes, they do. Kids aren't as stupid as some people think they are.

stoli n coke:Pandora's Litterbox: stoli n coke: Pandora's Litterbox: One Bad Apple: Those aren't what I was going for. "The Abyss" was the big budget big studio while "Deep Star Six" and "Leviathan" * were small budget ripoffs.

Deep Star Six was released in the U.S. on January 13, 1989

Leviathan was released in the U.S. on March 17, 1989

The Abyss was released in the U.S. on August 9, 1989

Just sayin'

It's probably not too difficult to rip off a James Cameron script and get your movie to the box office before he does.

Guy works very slow.

Well I was going to also bring up the fact that the two were both financed and released in-house by major studios (Leviathan through MGM-UA and Deep Star Six through Columbia-Tri-Star).

But I didn't want to be THAT much of a pedant.

The fact that they were major studios also means it's more likely they had read Cameron's script and would try to head off their competitor at the pass. The script had been done for years before Fox greenlit production.

Also, remember, Deep Star Six was made by Sean Cunningham of Friday the 13th fame. A guy who knew how to stretch a dollar and turn a movie out in a hurry.

THE ABYSS was also, famously, over 2 years in production, which gave theknock-off artists a lot of time to get their stuff out.

And its not just genre films that 'inspire' similar productions. SWITCHINGCHANNELS was greenlit around the time that BROADCAST NEWS wasdrawing critical praise (though, frankly, I thought it sucked), primariliy becausesome beancounter looked up from snorting coke off the pert rear end of astripper and noticed that "newsroom comedies SELL!".

Cloudchaser Sakonige the Red Wolf:And some parents buy said knockoffs for their kids as a cheaper alternative to seeing the real thing in the theater or buying the DVD thinking "they won't know the difference." Yes, they do. Kids aren't as stupid as some people think they are.

Yes they are. More, even.

Last kid I talked to couldn't even explain the principles behind solving partial differential equations.

GF bought me Transmorphers for my birthday accidentally. Got through 15 minutes before I realized something was seriously wrong. It was too goofy, too bad in a good way. Never said anything. Saw Transformers later and it wasn't THAT much better.

Cloudchaser Sakonige the Red Wolf:And some parents buy said knockoffs for their kids as a cheaper alternative to seeing the real thing in the theater or buying the DVD thinking "they won't know the difference." Yes, they do. Kids aren't as stupid as some people think they are.

But they are kids so they won't care. It's only ever adults that rage on the quality of entertainment for children.

Cloudchaser Sakonige the Red Wolf:And some parents buy said knockoffs for their kids as a cheaper alternative to seeing the real thing in the theater or buying the DVD thinking "they won't know the difference." Yes, they do. Kids aren't as stupid as some people think they are.

Kids know dick. I watch them in my arcades. They stand like laboratory rats hitting the feeder bar to get food pellets. As long as they pump in quarters, who gives a shiat, right?